AI Associate (m/f/x)

ÜBER UNS The appliedAI Initiative elevates Europe’s industry to become shapers in the age of AI, creating a future that we desire to live in. Through our ecosystem of strong partners, comprehensive programs, services and solutions we advance companies holistically on their AI journey. With our uniquely diverse, interdisciplinary, and driven team, we build on deep technical expertise while specializing on applicability of the solutions. We share a mindset of collaboration and openness with our ecosystem of leading companies and tech players. Our common goal is to strengthen the European landscape, jointly creating unique knowledge for applying trustworthy AI. We believe that AI Agents will be the dominant topic for AI in the near future and that appliedAI with its partner ecosystem will impact how this technology is being used in industry and beyond in Europe. DEINE AUFGABEN As a Senior AI Engineer (m/f/x) in the Professional Services organization, you take ownership of production-grade AI features and services from design through operation, and you’re the engineer other team members turn to when a delivery gets technically hard. You work at the intersection of software engineering rigor and applied AI, translating client requirements into scalable, maintainable systems while raising the bar for how the team builds. Beyond your own delivery scope, you help shape how junior and mid-level engineers on your engagements approach quality, testing, and production readiness. Your tasks will include: * Owning the end-to-end design, build, and operation of production AI features and services across one or more client engagements * Making architecture and implementation decisions for ML/LLM-integrated systems - APIs, microservices, event-driven pipelines - with a clear eye on maintainability and cost * Driving evaluation, safety, and observability practices into every service you ship, and holding others on the engagement to the same bar * Guiding partner teams through the transition from PoC to scalable, production-deployed solutions, acting as the primary technical point of contact * Mentoring AI Engineers on your engagements through code review, pairing, and technical guidance * Contributing technical scoping, effort estimates, and solution options during pre-sales, in close collaboration with AI strategists and program managers * Identifying and building reusable patterns or components that other engagements can adopt DEIN PROFIL * Several years of software engineering experience, including meaningful hands-on experience building and operating ML/LLM-based systems in production * Strong command of Python and professional engineering practices - testing, CI/CD, code review, Git workflows - applied consistently under client delivery pressure * Solid grounding in cloud-native development (Docker, Kubernetes), APIs/microservices, and data stores, with working knowledge of the modern AI stack (LangChain/LangGraph, vector stores, evaluation frameworks) * Demonstrated experience leading a feature or service through production hardening in a client-facing or cross-functional setting * Comfortable operating with ambiguity and taking ownership without close supervision, while remaining approachable to less experienced colleagues you’re guiding * Excellent communication skills - able to explain technical trade-offs to both engineers and client stakeholders * Fluent English; working proficiency in German is a strong plus DEINE VORTEILE * A highly qualified and motivated team of ~90 people is on a journey to change the rapidly evolving European AI Landscape * Experience the best of both worlds with our hybrid work model: You can choose to work from our vibrant offices — either at the IPAI in Heilbronn or the House of Communication in Munich — while also enjoying the flexibility to work remotely a few days each week * Opportunity to shape a variety of projects and the development of new, original content based on the latest developments in AI and its adoption in businesses * An atmosphere that encourages to think and experiment in new ways with software, hardware, and processes * A highly visible initiative that helps you build a large and high-level network of start-ups, partners, and tech companies * A flexible development budget that’s yours to shape — invest it in training, certifications, conferences, or new challenges, however you want to grow * Sports membership with Wellpass to access thousands of sports facilities all over Germany (and beyond), as well as online courses * JobRad: Lease a bike for a cheaper rate via JobRad and we cover the bike insurance on top * Sabbatical option: You can take a sabbatical of up to 3 months after min. 3 years of employment — because sometimes 30 vacation days are not enough to explore the beauty of this world * PME Familienservice: A 24/7 support for a successful work & life in any life situation. Benefit from free support in areas like life coaching, child care and many other options * Mobility budget: Every month we contribute to your individual mobility usage with public transport or shared mobility offers within the app Moovster * Workation: Work from anywhere in the EU/EWR area for up to 3 months per year — combining working at a nice place and spending your leisure time in the evening like vacation KONTAKT Lucas Fernandes - Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist appliedAI Initiative GmbH, August-Everding-Str. 25, 81671 München

doinstruct builds training software for the frontline workforce: shift supervisors, machine operators, and field teams at manufacturers, logistics companies, and industrial enterprises. For these companies, getting people trained, keeping them compliant, and making sure they can do their job is how daily operations run. Series A, 400+ customers, below 2% churn. When the software breaks or stops making sense, the consequences are immediate. A Schichtleiter is locked out 30 minutes before a morning training. A manager needs a certificate for a compliance audit on Friday, and it hasn't appeared in the system. An operations lead has been hitting the same error for a week. Fin, our AI support agent, resolves 30 to 50% of incoming tickets on its own. The cases it can't handle need someone who can read the situation, communicate clearly with a frustrated customer, and make the right call on whether to fix it, find a workaround, or escalate. We're looking for that person: someone to work alongside Fin, tackle what it can't resolve, and make sure the customers who rely on doinstruct to run their operations can actually use it. 🎯 WHAT YOU'LL OWN * Handle first-line support via chat and email, in German (and sometimes English). Fin handles the straightforward volume; what reaches you has already cleared its filter, so expect edge cases: confused users, workaround requests, situations that need actual judgment. * Triage every ticket: resolve it yourself, find a workaround, or route it upstream with enough context that whoever picks it up can act immediately. * Learn the product fast and mostly on your own. The documentation helps, but the product moves, and the knowledge you need will often come from figuring it out. * Maintain quality across every response, including when the customer is frustrated, and the right answer isn't obvious. * Bring what you notice back to Leadership and the product team. The patterns in what reaches you as a human are some of the best product feedback the company has. 🙋 WHO YOU ARE * You've worked in a situation where unhappy people needed help, and you had to figure out how to give it without a script. Customer support, hospitality, a Werkstudent role where things regularly went wrong: all count. * You write clearly in German and English. In German specifically, you can write to a factory floor manager who's never used software like this and make it feel manageable rather than his fault. * You are an avid user of LLM solutions and understand how to adapt them for optimal results, to what extent you can trust their output, and when they tend to fail. * You find software genuinely interesting at the level of "how does this actually work?" Curiosity matters here more than technical credentials. * When you hit something you haven't seen before, you go figure it out. 🤩 WHAT'S DIFFERENT HERE Fin handles 30 to 50% of everything that comes in. What you work on is what Fin passes: genuinely ambiguous problems, mostly on your own. Sonja, our CS Team Lead, is your main working partner. She built the current support function from scratch and trained Fin to handle the volume it does, and knows the product better than almost anyone outside Engineering. Engineering handles escalations for genuine technical issues. 400+ customers, Series A funded, below 2% churn. The product is genuinely used and genuinely valued, which shapes every customer conversation you'll have. A lot of independent problem-solving, not much of a manual, and a product that changes. Some days, that will feel like a lot. If you're looking for a structured environment with defined processes, this role will frustrate you. The people in this role before have moved into QA, product input, and other directions that opened up based on what they were good at and what doinstruct needed at the time. The paths aren't guaranteed. They have happened. 📈 WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE 3 months The queue is yours. You're making triage calls independently, your product knowledge is built from the work itself, and Sonja isn't reviewing responses before they go out. 6 months You're starting to level up the systems around you. Patterns from your queue are reaching Engineering in a form they can act on. You're building process: response approaches, triage heuristics, escalation criteria that exist somewhere beyond your own head. 12 months There's proof. Something in how doinstruct runs support is measurably better because you were here. A pattern you surfaced led to a Fin improvement. A process you built is now the default. A class of tickets that used to require escalation gets resolved at first line. ____ At doinstruct, you can make full use of your skills and play an active role in the further development of our start-up. And yes, we attach great importance to a positive working atmosphere, maximum transparency, communication at eye level, and support every step of your personal and professional development. Even if you don't tick all of the boxes, but you are motivated and want to work with us, you are very welcome to apply. We embrace diversity and hire people based on their ability to perform a job. People of any race, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, political opinion, or marital status are welcome at doinstruct. _ For questions or remarks please reach out to our Talent Acquisition Manager, Leonard, at leonard.mielke@doinstruct.com.